


Results May Vary

by treesofsilverleaves (Mixed_Up_Crazy)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Domestic Avengers, Family Drama, Kidfic, Multi, Superfamily, chosen family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-11
Packaged: 2018-03-22 07:54:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3721102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mixed_Up_Crazy/pseuds/treesofsilverleaves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twenty three years since the Avengers first came together and saved the world from Loki’s Chitauri army, not much has changed.  Other Avengers have come and gone, but the original six always remain, having long since settled down and become one big happy family.</p>
<p>Mostly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Results May Vary

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Launch](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1120100) by [Instigator](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Instigator/pseuds/Instigator). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: none

The glowing green numbers of the digital clock on her bedside table were mocking her, she was sure.  It was 2:30 in the morning, and she had school in a few hours, but there was no going to sleep on a night like this.  Not when there were more important things to do – like wondering, for the thousandth time in her life, if this was the night that someone didn’t make it home.

The Avengers had been called away around midnight.  That they were gone this long was nothing new, but it was still hard to stop worrying.  Normally she would be watching the news to keep track, but it was a school night, and Illeana had sent her and the rest off to bed at one.  So here she was, glaring at the clock and willing time to move faster.  Willing them all to come home intact.

Piper groaned and rolled over.  The time was now 2:31, and she felt like the seconds were turning into hours.  She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get the numbers out of her head, but it was no use.  It was the same thing every time the Avengers were called away unexpectedly, and it never got any better.  Every time, she ended up gnawing her fingernails and counting the minutes until they got back.

Abruptly, she sat up and switched on her the lamp next to her bed.  She wouldn’t be falling asleep anytime soon – that was for sure – maybe she could check on the others.  Surely they were as worried as she was, they wouldn’t be sleeping well either.

With that idea stuck in her head, Piper nodded to herself and slid out of bed, shivering when her bare feet hit the cold wooden floor.  An extra blanket from the foot of her bed made an excellent shawl to shield her from the night air as she padded out of her room and across the apartment to the door.

“Is everything alright, Miss Barton?” enquired a smooth, British voice as soon as she’d opened the door.  Piper jumped out of habit, though really she’d been expecting the question.  Her dad and Natasha were really protective of their privacy, so the AI was only allowed in the hallway, and inside the apartment itself in very limited amounts.

“I’m fine, JARVIS,” she said, directing a half-smile at the ceiling.  She shut the door quietly behind her and moved down the hallway, towards the elevators.  There were only two that went up this high in the Tower.  “I just couldn’t sleep.  Is anyone else awake?”

“Ms. Potts and Mrs. Banner are in the penthouse common area, and Doctor Foster is in the lab,” JARVIS replied immediately.  “Everyone else is in their respective rooms, though whether or not they are awake I am not aware.”

Yeah, even after all these years with him, her dad and Natasha weren’t the only ones who were leery about having JARVIS in their bedrooms, at the very least.  His sensors were enough to know when they were in their rooms and to monitor for problems, but that was about all anyone allowed.

“Thanks, Jarv.”  Piper stepped into the elevator and pressed her thumb against the scanner.  JARVIS already knew exactly who she was, but the security this high up the Tower, where the Avengers lived with their families, was extremely tight.  A blue light flashed, indicating she was in the clear.  “Can you take me up to the Potts floor?”

“Of course, Miss Barton.”

Out of anyone else in the Tower, Chase was sure to be awake.  To both of his parents’ frustration, he seemed to have inherited Tony’s sleeping habits, which mainly included not sleeping at all, even when he desperately wanted to.  If that boy was asleep right now, then she was a monkey’s uncle.

Piper stepped out onto the Potts floor and knocked on the door of Pepper’s apartment, loud enough for Chase to hear in his bedroom.  There was a moment of silence, and then she could see the lights flicking on from underneath the door, and hear the rush of footsteps.  The door opened to reveal the dark-haired, dark-eyed teen that was Chase Potts-Stark.

“Piper?” he asked, running a hand through his already-messy, ridiculous boyband hair.  He didn’t sound all that surprised, though.  “What’s up?”

“Just checking in,” Piper grinned at him, pushing past him and into the gorgeous apartment.  Her own apartment was really nice, but nothing compared to the sheer elegance and class that was Pepper Potts.  She plopped down onto an ivory colored sofa and stretched.  “Couldn’t sleep.”

“Join the club,” Chase mumbled.  He shut the door behind him and turned, allowing her to see the dark bags under his eyes in their full glory.  “School’s going to be fun.”

Piper groaned, not wanting to even think about it.  She just wanted everyone to come back home safe and sound so she could actually get an hour or two of rest before dragging herself off to the house of tortures known as public school.  Chase flopped down next to her, cracking his neck, which made her flinch.

“Jesus, Chase, don’t do that!” she yelped at the younger teen.  It was bad enough when Natasha did it; at least she was used to _that_.  “You’re going to break your neck someday.”

“You know I like to live life on the edge,” he said, sticking his tongue out at her when she rolled her eyes.

“ _Please_ , kid, we all know what a dork you are.”  Piper laughed, relishing the way her teasing never failed to annoy him.  At fifteen, Chase was only two years younger than her, and hardly a kid, he always insisted.  However, this time his retort was cut off by a sudden, shrill alarm blaring through the Tower.  The two teens shot up, rapidly going on alert, their bodies tense.

“JARVIS, what’s going on?” Chase shouted over the noise, snatching up a tablet from the glass coffee table in front of the sofa.  Piper dashed over to the door, and then all the windows, to make sure they were secure.  Even as many stories up as they were, there had been people before with the resources to climb up the side of the building and get in through those massive windows.

It was a good thing Tony had gotten the strongest bullet-proof glass in the world for them.

“I believe Mister Stark just crashed through the penthouse, Mister Potts-Stark,” JARVIS replied.

Chase and Piper shared a glance and then, as one, ran for the elevator.  It was already crowded with people when they got there.

“How’d you all get in here so fast?” Piper asked, elbowing past Chase’s adopted half-sister, Mariana, to get to inside.  (She didn’t like being near the doors when they closed.)  Mariana was only a few months younger than Chase, and looked surprisingly like him for someone who wasn’t related by blood.  She had similar Italian coloring – dark hair and olive skin – the only noticeable difference being that she had bright eyes the color of cornflowers.  Piper was crazy jealous of those eyes, her own being nothing more than a dull slate gray.

“We were already on the way up,” replied Mariana’s foster brother, Peter Parker, a little awkwardly.  It seemed as if everything the sixteen-year-old did was awkward; tall and lanky, he towered over the rest of them even when he slouched, and after living at the Tower for six months he still never quite knew how to act with them.  Still, they were making progress.  He reached out and ruffled the auburn locks of nine-year-old Amelia with a slight grin.  “We were hoping someone else would put the little monster back to bed.”

All of them, including Peter himself, flinched at his wording, though thankfully Amelia, half asleep on her feet, didn’t seem to have noticed.  Monsters were a sensitive subject around the Tower, especially in regards to Amelia.

“JARVIS said Illeana’s up in the penthouse with Pepper,” Piper said cautiously.  That was also where Tony had crashed, and if there were problems she didn’t want Amelia there to see the destruction, or worse, get hurt.  The rest of them had all been trained in various degrees of combat for their own protection, but Amelia was too young to learn or do as much as the older kids.  Hopefully Tony had crashed because of a problem with his suit, and not because someone (or something) made him.

The others understood her hesitation, and as the elevator rose to their destination, formed a circle around the dark-skinned little girl.  When the doors opened, they let out quiet sighs of relief – if JARVIS was letting them out on the penthouse floor than there couldn’t be anything too wrong.  As the oldest, Piper took the initiative to peek outside first.

There was a single trail of destruction leading from the windows on one side to the middle of the open floor plan penthouse, where the Iron Man suit lay.  Half of the suit was already open and pulled away, and the other half was being pried off by both Pepper and Illeana under the careful eye of JARVIS.  Piper nodded to the others and they made their way inside.

“Mommy!” Amelia called out as soon as she saw her mother.  While she loved being with the other kids, she was still at that age where her parents were her best friends.  Illeana looked up and immediately handed off her tools to the nearest person (Peter, who looked surprised and delighted to have been trusted enough to have this job delegated to him).

“Mia Monkey, what are you doing up this late?” she said, letting out an _oof_ as her daughter slammed into her legs.  “You should be in bed, sweetheart.”

“I can’t sleep when Daddy’s gone,” Amelia said.  Piper winced sympathetically.

Illeana nodded slowly, reaching out to take Amelia’s hand.  “Well, why don’t we go try, and we’ll have Daddy check in when he gets back, okay?”  Amelia nodded, tucking her tired face into her mother’s hip, and allowed herself to be led back to the elevator.

Peter and Pepper had finally gotten off all of the pieces of the Iron Man armor, and Tony was sitting up with a groan.  “I never thought I’d admit this, but I’m getting older, Pep,” he said, rubbing his back.  “Getting older sucks.”

“I’ll say,” Pepper agreed, even though, unlike Tony, whose dark hair was beginning to go salt-and-pepper, Pepper hardly ever seemed to age.  She could still pull off her power suits and heels just as well as ever, and hold a room captive or command a company as well as ever.  Chase liked to claim that the few wrinkles visible around her eyes were _business_ lines, not age lines.

Speaking of Chase, the boy genius straightened up hopefully.  “If you’re getting too old, can I—?”

“I’m not _that_ old,” Tony snapped immediately.  It was the same thing he said every time Chase brought up the idea.  “And you’re not old _enough_ , got it?  No superhero-ing until you’re at least thirty.”  Pepper nodded approvingly.  Thirty had been their agreed-upon number ever since Chase turned five and decided he was going to be Iron Man when he grew up.

“Never mind that.  What happened, Dad?” Mariana demanded impatiently, hovering worriedly as Peter helped him to his feet.

“EMP,” he grumbled, cracking his back as he stood, to Piper’s dismay.  “Rebooted the systems easily enough, but they used that to get a virus in the armor’s systems.”

“I thought you were supposed to be in south Jersey?” Chase pointed out.  He didn’t seem too disappointed by Tony’s rebuke.  “How did you get back here with a virus?”

Tony wrinkled his nose in disgust.  “Thought I had the damn thing deleted until I got back and realized the rocket boosters wouldn’t turn off.  By the way, JARVIS, cut the feed from the suit, will you?  Don’t want you getting infected.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Does that mean Pa – does that mean the others are going to be back soon?” Mariana asked eagerly.  Tony smiled down at her and her very transparent slip-up, nodding.

“Thank god,” Piper breathed, slumping over onto the nearest piece of furniture that hadn’t been destroyed.  “Maybe we can finally get some sleep.”

“Don’t you kids have school tomorrow?” Tony frowned.  Piper scoffed and grumbled under her breath.

“Do you really think that means anything to us when you guys are called away on potentially life-threatening missions?” Peter asked rhetorically, rolling his eyes.  He didn’t seem to have noticed that he’d included himself in that statement, or the fact that said inclusion had made Tony light up immediately. 

It was pretty obvious that Tony and Steve wanted to adopt Peter, but were afraid to broach the subject less than a year after the death of his previous guardians, May and Ben Parker.  None of them had really known Peter’s aunt and uncle, but Peter had apparently been really, really close with them.  The only reason Peter wasn’t in a home somewhere else was because Tony had been friends with his long-gone parents, and managed to hear what had happened to their son.

“JARVIS, how far away is the team?” Tony said, careful not to mention this to Peter in case the teenager spooked.  “And start calling about the repairs, it’s getting drafty in here.”

“Right away, sir.  The Avengers should be arriving any moment,” JARVIS reported.

Piper smiled in relief, then looked around, realizing that someone was still unaccounted for.  “Hey, where’s Cal?”

“Probably still sleeping,” Mariana shook her head.

“Asgardians can sleep through anything,” Tony agreed, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.  “It’s a scientific fact.”

“What’s a scientific fact?”

Mariana and Peter’s faces lit up.  “Papa!” the girl cried out, flying into Captain America’s arms.  They both laughed as he caught her and spun her around.  “You’re alright.”

“Of course I’m alright, sweetheart,” Steve said, setting her down.  He frowned at the destruction of the penthouse.  “What happened here?”

“Well, that’s my cue to leave,” Piper announced, standing up and looking around.  Apparently it was one of those nights where everyone went straight back to their own floors instead of the communal penthouse.  That meant that her dad and Natasha were probably already back, and after not being able to sleep at all because of them she wanted to at least _see_ them before they crashed in their room.  She headed back to the elevator.  “Going down, Jarv.”

“Of course, Miss Barton.  Your father has asked after your whereabouts.”

“Yeah, when does he not?” she shook her head.  “Tell him I’m on my way.”

**Author's Note:**

> So quick story time:  
> Once upon a time, circa 2012, I was obsessed with the Avengers to the point where I created what basically amounted to self-insert characters that would have been the love interests to all of the Avengers if I had ever actually gotten around to writing that fic. Around the same time, I decided it would be awesome to create the children of these pairings, and write a huge fic where they traveled back in time and met their parents before they were born. Also around the same time, I got into Superfamily and started writing a series that was basically Superfamily plus an extra adopted kid, mostly revolving around the extra kid. Yeah, 2012!me was kind of pathetic (not that that's changed).  
> And then I read some actually good Domestic Avengers/Superfamily fics and felt extremely disappointed in myself. So I decided to overhaul everything and start anew. Several of the characters (mostly the made up children) in this fic are OCs from that time period that have gone through some major makeovers.  
> Hopefully I've become a better writer in the past few years...


End file.
